All manner and variety of paddle and ball games are known. Many claim to improve and develop manual dexterity and muscular coordination, stimulate the cardiovascular system, and generally contribute to physical fitness. Many of the games require more than one player, e.g., table tennis. Others use objects other than balls in a variety of circumstances.
Several prior patents relating to paddle and missile games are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 578,491 issued to Knowles on Mar. 9, 1897, discloses an elongate paddle with a conical receptacle adapted to receive the pointed end of a dart. The dart is kept in motion by hitting it into the air with the reverse side of the paddle and then caught and seated again in the receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 986,157 issued Mar. 7, 1911 to Fleming, discloses an hour-glass shaped paddle having a shallow-sided ball-receiving cup in the top half of the paddle and a ball-receiving aperture in the bottom half. A ball is played off surfaces and caught in the cup or through the aperture. U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,785 issued Dec. 12, 1961 to O'Brien, discloses a paddle with a relatively shallow receptacle affixed to one face of the paddle and an aperture or shallow pocket between the receptacle and the proximate end of the paddle opposite the handle end. The aperture or pocket is a seat for a small playing piece such as a jackstone, ball, token or disk. The game is played by tossing the playing piece into the air and catching it in the receptacle as it descends. U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,622 issued Oct. 5, 1971 to Haroski, discloses a basket that is attached to a player's hips or waist for receiving a tethered ball attached proximate the receptacle. By the user moving his or her hips, the ball is set in motion and caught in the basket. U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,262 issued Jul. 23, 1974 to Grzybowski et al., discloses a hand-held vertical support having a plurality of affixed basket-like containers and a tethered ball proximate the bottom of the support. The ball is hurled upward and the support is moved to attempt to catch the ball in one of the baskets.
Despite this diversity of ball and paddle type games in the prior art, a game has not heretofore been developed that is specifically designed to be easily and effectively used by both children and adults for the purpose of improving eye-hand coordination, motor response time, agility, and concentration. The prior art also does not provide a ball and paddle game that can be played on virtually any surface, in any environment, indoors or outdoors, by one or more players, and that maximizes the challenge levels possible in its use by incorporating a feature designed to introduce unpredictability in the trajectory of the ball.